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Friday, April 7, 2017

Big Agenda, by David Horowitz

If you know David Horowitz, you know he is no fan of Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama. It will also come as no surprise to you that in Big Agenda: President's Trump Plan to Save America, he touts President Donald Trump, and holds him out as a beacon of hope to right much that is awry in the United States. To be clear, Horowitz is not writing as Trump's mouthpiece. Rather, he is writing as one who hopes Trump will listen and will fulfill the promises that he made during his campaign.

Horowitz paints a bleak picture of the impact that Obama's administration had on the U.S. He reminds us that, in spite of the heroic efforts by the mainstream media to get Clinton elected, the American people, at least enough of them in key states, showed that they were fed up with the direction Obama and Clinton wanted to take our country and they were ready for someone to take our country back.

Just when you think Horowitz is hard on the Democrats, he jumps onto the Republicans. This is really the core of Horowitz's argument. Republicans need to show that they are sick of Democrats setting the agenda, show some fortitude, and bring the fight to the Democrats. During the Obama administration, the Republicans capitulated and played nice, failing to stop his liberal agenda, even when they had a majority in the legislature. And do Democrats care? As we can see now, no. Capitulation by the Republicans under Obama is met with obstructionism by the Democrats under Trump.

I don't mean to make Horowitz sound like nothing more than a loudmouth. He has substantive chapters and specific talking points that Trump and Republicans in the legislature should consider. Don't let Democrats have the upper hand on race. How about pointing out that under Obama, the economic status of black Americans declined? How about pointing out that under half a century or more of black leadership in some of our largest cities, those cities have been crumbling? How about pointing out ways, as Trump did during the campaign, that a Republican agenda produces more hope and change for minorities and the poor than Obama ever could?

Don't let Democrats continue to drive a liberal agenda in universities and local schools around the country. Don't let them limit school choice, barring poor Americans in failing school districts from educational success. Republicans control the federal legislature and most state legislatures around the country. How about they systematically reverse the exclusion of conservative ideas from campuses? How about they expand school choice so more kids will have opportunities to learn?

Democrats have a greater tendency to march in lockstep than Republicans. I don't recall Democratic congressmen blocking Obama's agenda during his first 100 days in office. Yet some Republicans are doing their best to oppose everything Trump proposes. Republicans need to bring the fight to the Democrats, not to each other. Horowitz's agenda should be read by Trump's aids and put into practice. Republicans have the White House and both houses of congress (and soon, probably, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court). Now DON'T SQUANDER THIS OPPORTUNITY!